After the outcry from some of my buddies whose opinion was that what I posted earlier was NOT a pretty sight, I’m posting what I think should appease their appetite for pretty things. Well… it’s also to show off *ahem* some additions to my humble garden.

Well, at least there was some improvement in the garden over compared to a couple of months ago and the beginning.

After all the complaints that I’ve been posting gross photos (except jonzz, who not affected “any-so-ever”), I’m going to show you how pretty the intestines can look from the inside. Actually, the beauty of the inside of the gut is breath-taking (if you even dare to breathe ).

Moreover, although they do age, i.e. they undergo genetic mutations and genetic degeneration, they don’t show the signs of aging that you see in the skin. When you look at or hold the bowel in your hands, you find that you cannot guess the age of the bowel. Children not withstanding, of course. They look as pristine as ever and smooth as it was created to be. You might say that aging looks skin-deep. Plunge in with me …

The coral-like soft and silky projections that you see swaying in the intestinal fluid are the villi (rings a bell?) that line the inside of the small intestines. They function to absorb the digested material in the intestines. Lovely sight to behold.

They are the prettiest sight during every colonoscopy because it means that you’re reached the small intestines (proof that the entire colon has been examined).

LB showed a photo of his desktop full of wired connections among his Apple and the peripherals. And he challenged anyone to show the “uncensored, unplugged and X-rated” photo of theirs too. Since I was getting bored this afternoon, I took him up on the challenge and took a photo of my desktop. I must congratulate him on getting such an elegant albeit “haywired” photo of his desktop with such perfect-looking lighting of the area BEHIND the desktop.

When my patients step out of the clinic or I leave the ward, the endoscope room, the operating theatre, the emergency room or, last but not least, the cafe, this is what I turn to: my little side desk with my IT paraphernaliae. Missing is my trusty little Canon A95 camera. It’s one cool camera, although it’s a bit slow.

The laubeh desktop belongs to the hospital. Basically I just use it for the Hospital Information system.. where I enter patient notes, order tests, prescribe drugs, book operating theatre time and, last but not least, fill in consultation charges. I use the notebook for all of my personal use.

FAQs:

1. Where are the X-rated stuff? You’d have to look below decks. Obviously, all those are behind the scenes.

2. What’s on my wish-list? I wish the hospital’s Streamyx-connected WiFi signal would reach this corner of the hospital. It’ll soon be remedied… another WiFi router positioned nearer to my office. Or perhaps a 802.11n router just like the one LB talked about. Then I’ll be able to ditch the handphone that I use to connect via GPRS. Any other suggestions?

So, LB, does it qualify as X-rated?

On Monday I prepared for a Chinese public talk on screening for cancer. I had a presentation on the same topic already in English so what I needed to do was to translate it and prepare the slides in Chinese.

For all you “banana” (Chinese-illiterate) boys and girls who are intending to do something similar, here are a few tips and tricks.

1. You can use one of several translating or dictionary applications for translating from English to Chinese and vice versa. Among the ones that I use most often are:

• Yellowbridge
• Systrans
• WorldLingo

The last two are actually using the same engine or lexicon (I believe, correct me if I’m wrong) as the translations seem to be always the same. Translate back and forth to make sure you’ve got the right word for the right context.

2. You can actually download a Yellowbridge toolbar here to use on IE or Firefox. They’re very useful, especially if you’re reading a Chinese website. You just need to copy and paste the words to the toolbar search space and click a button.

In addition, there’s a Chinese “Talker” which pronounces the words in Chinese. Unfortunately, this one is not free of charge. You can download the programme for a trial and buy if you find it useful. I found it useful as it helps when I need a fast vocalisation to jsut job my memory of the words I’m reading. Once I hear the words being read aloud, I can sometimes understand it without even looking up the dictionary. Of course, the most important function would be to verify how the words should actually be spoken.

I had a problem with the talker when I converted to IE7 recently and I contacted the support. They replied promptly and settled my problem immediately. Thanks!

3. When I need to translate technical words or jargon, I use Google’s advanced search to look for journal or websites in Chinese. Limit the results to those in Chinese. The results will include many sites from China and Taiwan from which I copy a few candidates and choose the best phrase that is an internationally used term.

4. So, how to display Chinese characters and type an input in Chinese? I’m taking for granted that you’ve enabled Chinese input on your Windows XP and Windows Office 2003. If you haven’t, you’ll need to enable Chinese language but going to the “start” > “control panel” > “add other languages” > tick the box for “install East Asian Languages” > “ok”.

Also, there are Chinese fonts to download and install. Among the sites to look for and install Chinese fonts would be ktmatu.com and sinosplice.com.

Finally, there’s the Input Method Editor (IME) to install. Go to microsoft.com to download the IME.

5. No matter how you research the net and double check with don’t know how many translation applications on the net, you would still need to test it by reading with with a Chinese speaker who can point out some local jargon and syntax or grammatical mistakes.

So there you go … easy steps to learning Chinese on the net and preparing a translation for your presentations.

So… the result?

Not bad eh? Anyone’s got any other ideas or suggestions? I’m open to suggestions…